But Sam's face was as red as his grandfather's. "She is only ten years
older than I. That is nothing. Nothing at all. If she will overlook my
comparative youth and marry me, I--"
"Damnation!" his grandfather screamed.. "She overlook? She?"
"I am younger," the boy said; "but love isn't a matter of age. It's a
matter of the soul."
"A matter of the soul!" said Benjamin Wright; "a matter of--of a
sugar-tit for a toothless baby! Which is just about what you are. That
female, I tell you could have dandled you on her knee ten years ago."
Sam got up; he was trembling all over.
"You needn't insult me," he said.
Instantly his grandfather was calm. He stopped chewing orange-skin,
and looked hard at his ridgy finger-nails.
"I shall ask her again," Sam said. "I said I wouldn't, but I will. I
must. That was why I came back. And as for my age, that's her business
and mine."
"You've drunk too much," said his grandfather, "Sit down. I've
something to say to you. You can't marry that woman. Do you understand
me?"
"You mean she doesn't care for me?" Sam laughed noisily. "I'll make
her. Old--young--what does it matter? She must!" He flung up his
arms, and then sank down and hid his face in his hands.
"Sammy," said the old man, and stopped. "Sam, it can't be. Don't you
understand me? She isn't fit to marry."
The young man gaped at him, blankly.
"She's--bad," Benjamin Wright said, in a low voice.
"How dare you!" cried the other, his frowning bewilderment changing
slowly to fury; "how dare you? If she had a relative here to protect
her, you would never dare! If her brother was here, he would shoot
you; but she has me, and I--"
"Her brother!" said Benjamin Wright; "Sam, my boy, he isn't her
brother."
"Isn't he?" Sam flung back at him, "well, what of that? I'm glad of
it; I hate him." He stood up, his hands clenched, his head flung back.
"What difference does it make to me what he is? Her cousin, her
friend--what do I care? If she marries me, what do I care for
relations?"
His grandfather looked up at him aghast; the young, insulted innocence
of love blazed in the boy's face. "Gad-a-mercy," said Mr. Wright, in a
whisper, "he doesn't understand!" He pulled himself on to his
shaking legs, and laid his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Sam," he
said very gently, "he is her lover, my boy." Sam's lips fell apart;
he gasped heavily; his hands slowly opened and shut, and he swayed
from side to side; his wild eyes were fixed on that old face, all
softened and moved and pitying. Then, with a discordant shriek of
laughter, he flung out his open hand and struck his grandfather full
in the face.